Main Sunni bloc boycotts Iraq government talks

By Mussab Al-Khairalla

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s main Sunni Muslim bloc pulled
out of talks on Thursday on the formation of a new government,
blaming the ruling Shi’ite alliance for sectarian violence that
has killed dozens of Sunnis in the past 24 hours.

The sectarian tensions sparked by an attack on a Shi’ite
shrine on Wednesday occurred at a critical time for Iraq, as
fractious politicians struggle to form a new government two
months after elections for the first full-term parliament.

“We are suspending our participation in negotiations on the
government with the Shi’ite Alliance,” Tareq al-Hashemi, a
senior official of the Iraqi Accordance Front, told reporters.

The negotiations have been mired in sectarian differences,
prompting the U.S. ambassador to warn that Washington had spent
too much tax-payers’ money in Iraq to tolerate sectarianism and
militias in government.

It was not clear if broader talks would now go ahead
without the presence of the Accordance Front, which includes
the Iraqi Islamic Party. The Front won 44 of 275 seats when the
once dominant Sunni minority ended its boycott of the
U.S.-sponsored political process and took part in the December
elections.

STAY AWAY

The Accordance Front stayed away from a meeting at
President Jalal Talabani’s house on Thursday designed to calm
tensions, blaming the Shi’ite-led government for failing to
protect Sunnis and their places of worship.

“If the price of participating in the political process is
the blood of our people, then we are willing to go back on
this. This atmosphere does not help the resumption of
negotiations,” said Accordance Front spokesman Thafer al-Aani.

Dozens of people, mostly Sunnis, were killed in Baghdad and
elsewhere after the bombing of the Shi’ite shrine in Samarra,
police said. Dozens of Sunni mosques were also attacked and
Shi’ite militias took to the streets.

Aani said the bloc would resume talks only if those who
incited and participated in the violence officially apologized,
compensation was paid for damaged mosques, perpetrators were
brought to justice and the militias behind them held to
account.

The Accordance Front also demanded a pledge there would be
no repeat of the violence.

The Arab League, meeting in Cairo at ambassador level,
condemned attacks on mosques and the killing of innocent people
and called for restraint by all political and religious leaders
in Iraq.

“The council calls on them to … thwart all attempts and
criminal plans against the unity, security and stability of
Iraq, and to stand in the way of all those who try to plant the
seeds of strife among the Iraqi people,” it said in a
statement.